News

Mixamate matriarch featured in new book

Posted on 12th February 2019

Marie Joseph, the Mother of Rosalind Smith and Sharon Lansley, and Grandmother of Simone Kaye – three Mixamate employees working out of the Company’s London headquarters in Edmonton, has been featured in a new book titled The Stepney Doorstep Society.

The book, which was written by British-Irish Author, Kate Thompson, was this weekend featured in the Daily Mirror, in an article examining some key talking points from in and around the publication. The book takes a fresh look at the war through the eyes of some of the East End’s most formidable matriarchs and their daughters. It tells the real life histories – both uplifting and shocking – of the women who ran the East End during the war years.

Marie, 97 and her friend Beatty Orwell, 102, recently received a visit from Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at Jewish Care’s Brenner Centre at Stepney Community Centre. The event reached new heights, the paper reports, when the two dazzled Camilla by getting up to dance:

“Still working as well as dancing, sprightly centre volunteer Marie stunned Camilla when she confided her age. As well as living through the Depression, the wartime East Ender survived the Blitz, started work in a factory at the age of 14 and, 83 years on, recently won an award for her volunteering work for Jewish Care.”

The Stepney Doorstep Society is on sale now and available through Penguin Books. It offers a frank and detailed view of the war years as well as an examination of how the female role has changed in UK society over the past 100yrs. In an age of ‘Fake News’ and alternative facts, these are real stories grounded in first-hand accounts that shine a light on real lives.

The entire team at Mixamate is extremely proud of Marie’s inclusion in such an important and engaging work. Her Unsung Hero Award, presented by Lord Levy, for volunteer work in the Jewish community and beyond, is an on-going source of inspiration.